This study examined relationships among lesson satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological well-being, and quality of life (QoL) among university students participating in golf lessons. Data were collected from 495 students at S University in Hainan Province, China, using a structured questionnaire. Analyses were conducted with SPSS version 25.0 and PROCESS macro version 3.3 to test simple and serial mediation. Golf lesson satisfaction had a significant direct effect on QoL (β = 0.087). Psychological well-being significantly mediated this association, indicating that higher satisfaction improved QoL partly through enhanced psychological well-being. Self-esteem alone did not significantly mediate the relationship. However, a significant sequential pathway was observed in which lesson satisfaction predicted self-esteem, which in turn predicted psychological well-being, leading to higher QoL (X→M1→M2→Y). These findings suggest that satisfying university golf lessons can enhance students’ psychological well-being and, consequently, improve their QoL, underscoring the value of sport education for promoting mental health and sustained physical activity engagement.
Kwon et al. (Mon,) studied this question.